Accused killers David Wiggins and Christopher Parks were allegedly text-messaging back and forth for about an hour prior to their alleged planned robbery at a Rite Aid Pharmacy in Chester, which resulted in the fatal shooting of popular manager Jason Scott McClay last month.

Two co-conspirators, Ashaniere “Ash” White, self-described as Parks' niece, and Tariq Mahmud, who was employed as the loss prevention officer at the store at Ninth Street and Highland Avenue at the time of the robbery gone awry on Sept. 19, were both mentioned in the exchanges. As were details like gas money and a gun that the suspects referred by slang as a “jawn,” according to court documents.

Part of the pre-crime texting between Wiggins and Parks, the latter whose street name is C-Dot or Dot, focused on the loot — which the suspects estimated at $2,000-$7,000, based on inside information authorities believe was provided by Mahmud.

The following is a text exchange authorities believe occurred between Wiggins and Parks, according to documents.

Wiggins: So how much n dere

Parks: Frm my understandn 2-7

Wiggins: Stacks

Parks: Yea

Wiggins: Where it at

Parks: Da safe

Wiggins: No da store (N-word)

Parks: Lol my fault nd Chester

Wiggins: U need gas n wats ya cut

Parks: Yall can give me gas nd depends wats n dere

Wiggins: Ard u got a jawn

Parks: Yea

Wiggins: Cum to my crib

Parks: Im outside

Based on that exchange, according to documents, Parks was standing outside Wiggins' residence on South 30th Street in Philadelphia at 20:47:52 (8:47 p.m.) on Sept. 19.

At the time, according to Google map, they were 16.4 miles away from the Chester target.

Estimated time of the trip: 23 minutes, one way.

Authorities say Wiggins and accomplice Rita Pultro entered the pharmacy at Ninth Street and Highland Avenue with the intent to commit armed robbery just before 10 p.m. closing time that fateful Thursday. Among those inside were four employees, including McClay, as well as the husband of one of the female employees and their young child, according to sources.

Parks, who authorities believe may have provided the pair with a murder weapon, allegedly waited outside as the getaway driver. The murder weapon has not been recovered.

According to documents, a witness told investigators that Pultro was working a 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. bartending shift on Sept. 19 at the “25 and Up” bar at 29th and Reed streets in Philadelphia when she said she had to leave to meet her child at the hospital. That witness said Pultro returned several hours later, at around 10:30 p.m., and completed the shift.

The “25 and Up” is a bar that Wiggins frequents, according to authorities.

First suspect sings

It was around 9:54 p.m. on Sept. 19 when Chester police were dispatched by Delaware County Emergency Communications (911) for a shooting at the Rite Aid. City Officer Will McKinzie entered the store and found McClay's body in aisle 14. McClay, 40, of Marple, was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to official “Findings” by the Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office, McClay's death was ruled a homicide due to a perforating close range gunshot wound to the neck and chest area.

Within four hours of the crime, investigators lifted and identified convicted felon Wiggins' palm print from an exit door of the pharmacy. They also had surveillance video of two suspects; A male in his late 20s to mid-30s wearing a white T-shirt over a black long sleeve top, rolled up blue jeans and black boots, and a white or light-skinned female in her mid- to late 20s wearing a red hooded jacket with white stripes down the sleeves, blue jeans and gray sneakers.

By Saturday afternoon on Sept. 21, Wiggins was in custody. At a press conference that day, Chester Police Commissioner Joseph Bail Jr. was flanked by District Attorney Jack Whelan, Chester Mayor John Linder and Chief Joseph Ryan of the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division.

“I'm ecstatic to announce this arrest,” Bail said. “I can't tell you how good it feels to be part of the (team) who went out and worked tirelessly” since the homicide.

In his statement to detectives that day, Wiggins allegedly “gave up Rita Pultro” as the alleged shooter, and raised suspicions when he provided information about the pharmacy that “only a person who was employed or closely affiliated with an employee would have,” Whelan said at a second press conference last week.

According to documents, Pultro was sitting on a front porch in the 1300 block of Harrison Street in Philadelphia when authorities converged on the neighborhood the next day, Sept. 22.

She was taken into custody on a probation violation, apparently involving her failure to make notification regarding an address change. But when asked if she knew why she was being arrested, Pultro reportedly responded, “Yes, it's because of the robbery in Chester,” documents state.

Unbeknownst to the suspects, according to documents, authorities were already pursuing an inside job angle, based on Wiggins' statement.

Piecing a jigsaw puzzle

Earlier on Sept. 22, the Citizens Crime Commission of the Delaware Valley received a call on its anonymous Tipline regarding the investigation. The commission and Rite Aid had both posted $10,000 rewards for information in the case.

According to documents, a female caller said “Tariq works as a security guard at Rite Aid” and that he “set up” two other robberies at the (Ninth and Highland) Rite Aid, according to documents. The caller also provided information regarding a woman who associated with both Tariq Mahmud and Wiggins.

On Friday, Rite Aid spokeswoman Ashley Flower said Mahmud had been employed by Rite Aid for more than four years but “is no longer with the company. Declining to discuss personal matters, she said the termination “is not connected to his arrest.”

As the investigation into McClay's homicide continued, detectives spent much of their time scrutinizing phone records, as well as searching Facebook pages.

Early on, Whelan said investigators had only nicknames of suspects. They utilized Pultro's and Wiggins' Facebook postings, looking at photographs of clothing and even their “friends” lists to help identify potential suspects, and advance their case, he said.

For instance, they'd seen a “My mind is running crazy” status on a Facebook page for “Rita Zerotosixy Pultro,” which was posted Sept. 21 — the day Wiggins was arrested, and one day before her apprehension on Sept. 22.

Between the murder and the time of their arrest, both Pultro and Wiggins obtained new cellphones, but the county's forensics team was still able to recover messages attached to their accounts, according to Whelan.

“We were able to piece this together like a jigsaw puzzle,” Whelan said last week, lauding a team of dogged investigators from Chester and CID.

“We can show the connection, all through their text messaging, as to how this robbery was planned, how it went down, even after the fact, when they're saying it went south,” Whelan said, speaking an Oct. 2 press conference announcing the arrests of Mahmud, Parks and White.

Those three arrests, coupled with Wiggins and Pultro, all five of Philadelphia, completed what Whelan called “the circle of individuals involved in the robbey/felony murder.”

Pultro, 23, whose driver's license lists her residence in the 1400 block of East Bristol Street, and Wiggins, 24, of South 30th Street, are both facing first-, second- and third-degree murder, as well as robbery, firearms not to be carried without a license, recklessly endangering another person and criminal conspiracy offenses. Some of the charges will be added to the criminal complaint at the preliminary hearing, authorities said.

Mahmud and Parks, both 23 and both of different residences in the 3000 block of Wharton Street, and White, 19, of the 1700 block of South 32nd Street, were charged with second- and third-degree murder, as well as robbery and conspiracy offenses.

All five are listed for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 16 in Magisterial District Judge Spencer B. Seaton's court in Chester.

Whelan, Bail and Ryan all said they are not aware of any previous homicide that resulted in the arrest of five suspects.

A change in plans

Neither White nor Mahmud was present during the robbery/homicide, according to authorities. White was with her girlfriend all night; Mahmud called out sick from his shift that night to celebrate his son's birthday, they told investigators, according to documents.

With the exception of Pultro, authorities believe the suspects had been planning the robbery since at least Sunday, Sept. 15.

“She was a last minute add on,” Whelan said of Pultro, whom he believes fired the fatal bullet into McClay's neck.

White provide a statement to police indicating “the robbery was initiated by Tariq Mahmud and included David Wiggins, Christopher Parks and herself,” the affidavit states.

According to documents, White told investigators that on Sept. 18, she and Parks were talking outside of Parks' house when they were joined by Mahmud and Wiggins.

“All four of them started to get into detail with planning the robbery,” which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 18, but switched to Thursday, Sept. 19, because “C-Dot didn't have any gas money,” she told authorities, according to documents.

During that conversation on Wednesday, according to documents, she said Mahmud indicated there would only be two females working and there should be $5,000 in the safe.

She heard Wiggins ask Mahmud “if he was sure there would only be females inside, because he didn't' want to shoot anyone,” and Mahmud assured Wiggins that he had checked the employee schedule, documents state.

Documents include a long list of text exchanges, allegedly between Wiggins and White, on the afternoon of Sept. 18, allegedly when White was planning to be the robbery lookout. Here is part of that conversation, according to documents.

Wiggins: Yo, I want my sis to go in wit me

White: yall can go in ima jus be yall look out

Wiggins: Ard who da ride

White: dot

Wiggins: Ard

Wiggins: Who all get a cut

White: it was gone b me u n dot, but now ya sister is too.. if it aint alot I only want 200

According to authorities, sister refers to Pultro, though she is not related to any of the suspects, and ARD is slang for alright.

When the hit on Wednesday was scrapped, White said planning for the robbery continued Thursday, through text-messaging between Wiggins, Parks and herself, according to documents.

White: yo

Wiggins: yo

White: Its a go?

Wiggins: Ard at 9

Not a random crime

According to the documents, White had a conversation with Parks on Sept. 20, post-crime.

Parks told her that he drove Wiggins and “the white girl” to Chester to pull the job, and he stayed outside, the affidavit states. The “white girl” is a reference to Pultro, authorities said.

Based on Parks' account to White, according to documents, White told investigators: Wiggins and Pultro entered the store. Pultro lured the manager to the diaper aisle. When the manager bent over, Wiggins pointed the gun to the manager's head and the manager started to fight with him. At one point, the manager was wrestling for the gun, and the gun was pointed at Wiggins' head. Wiggins pushed the manager away and shot the manager in the head. Both Wiggins and Pultro fled and got back into Parks' green Grand Prix, where Wiggins proceeded to share details of the deadly deed, and dismantled the handgun.

Authorities describe the five suspects as friends, some closer than others, all of whom reside or work within blocks of each other in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia.

“When we started this investigation, we believed there was going to be a link with someone in the city of Chester. But no resident of Chester is linked to this crime. This is coming down from the Grays Ferry section, travelling down (Interstate) 95,” Whelan said. “It wasn't random. It was because Tariq worked at the Rite Aid in Chester, that's why they hit that Rite Aid.”